What happened to Harry Kaufman? Case explored as court overturns conviction in 1995 NYC subway murder

Three men have been released from prison after serving decades for the murder of New York clerk Harry Kaufman.

Last week, on July 15, the judge cleared Vincent Ellerbe, James Irons and Thomas Malik of murder convictions after prosecutors pointed out that the case was built on false confessions, weak witness identification, and other unreliable evidence.

The killing of Harry Kaufman was one of the most brutal crimes to have taken place in New York during the 90s. The victim, Harry Kaufman, was reportedly set on fire in a subway toll booth.

All three men, who were teens at the time, had confessed to the crime and were eventually convicted of the 1995 murder. However, the trio maintained they were coerced into confessing to the same.

Addressing the court about their time in jail, Ellerbe said:

"What happened to us can never be fixed. They break you, or they turn you into a monster."

Speaking about his ordeal, Mallik said:

"Definitely too little, too late, but everything takes time. I just was happy that I was able to stand strong."

While Irons only said he "felt great" about getting his conviction overturned.

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Harry Kaufman's murder shocked citizens across the United States

On November 26, 1995, Harry Kaufman, 50, was working an overnight shift on Kingston Avenue and Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The attackers tried to rob him and afterwards sprayed gasoline through the coin slot of the tollbooth.

Next, they ignited the fuel with matches as Harry Kaufman begged them not to "light it!" authorities said at the time. It caused the booth to explode and forced Kaufman to run while being engulfed in flames. He soon died two weeks later.

Harry Kaufman was a married man and father of two.

Following the incident, parallels were drawn between the brutal manner of the killing and a scene from the movie Money Train, that was released days earlier.

While interrogating Irons, the police allegedly got him to say that he was acting as a lookout while Malik and Ellerbe were the ones who set Kaufman on fire.

Reports say that Irons was at home with his mother when he heard the tollbooth explosion and called 911. His lawyer, David Shanies, stated that this key piece of evidence was never played for the jury at his trial.

The men have repeatedly stated that their confessions made to disgraced former NYPD Detectives Louis Scarcella and Stephen Chmil were forced. Malik also accused Scarcella of screaming at him and bashing his head into a locker. The former NYPD det. admitted to being abusive but said he did not beat the then 18-year-old Malik.

Scarcella and Chmil reportedly fed certain specific details about the crime scene to Irons and Malik while discarding inconsistencies in their confessions, prosecutors said.

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Speaking about the Harry Kaufman case, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said:

"The horrific murder of Harry Kaufman shocked our city and devastated a loving family, but the findings of an exhaustive, years-long reinvestigation of this case leave us unable to stand by the convictions of those charged."

He added:

"Above all, my obligation is to do justice, and because of the serious problems with the evidence on which these convictions are based, we must move to vacate them and acknowledge the harm done to these men by this failure of our system."

"My heart aches for the Kaufman family and my office remains resolute in our commitment to seek justice for the victims, while ensuring fairness to all."

Ellerbe, 44, was paroled in 2020, but Malik and Irons, both 45, have remained in prison until 2022.